


Unorthodox Allure

by TheSadisticMunchkin



Series: 30 Days of Hamburr Challenge [23]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: 30 Days of Hamburr, 30 Days of Writing, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Photographer, Cameras, First Meetings, Flirting, Fluff, Implied Relationships, Insecurity, M/M, Muses, Photographer Aaron Burr, Photography
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-03 03:52:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6595534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSadisticMunchkin/pseuds/TheSadisticMunchkin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He decided to go to his favorite place to take photos, the park. The park in itself was the perfect harmony between nature and man. What better way to capture the perfect photo than to have a stroll in the park? He had many options here, the children climbing up trees, the boy giving his girlfriend a flower he plucked from the grass, the shirtless men playing some form of ball game near the lake. He wasn’t sure what ball game it was but Aaron didn’t care.</p><p>He took a picture of the men for his portfolio… just in case.</p><p>Day 23 of the 30 Days of Hamburr Self-Induced Challenge of 2016</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unorthodox Allure

**Author's Note:**

> Oh my god there are only 7 days left? Holy shit, It's become like a routine now but I only have a week left to do it????? Shit okay
> 
> ALSO IM SO SORRY THIS IS LATE! You want to know why? My internet was down the whole day yesterday and apparently up until today so... That just means two fics will be posted today! Hurray!!
> 
> Dedication of the day goes to yellowsweetea on tumblr! I thought this would be the most appropriate one to dedicate to you <3

Aaron Burr learned to find the beauty in many things in his years as a Photography student. He found the simple elegance in a single lily pad floating in a quiet pond. He found the grace in the way the winds pushed at the smaller branches of the trees in an unchoreographed dance. He found the carefree innocence in the child perched carefully on her father’s shoulders as they run along the hills in glee.

 

However, for once in his life, he didn’t know what to take a picture of.

 

The assignment was simple:  _ find the perfect harmony between man and nature.  _ The best picture was going to be posted in an online photography exhibit. He would also get a new waterproof camera and heaven knows his DSLR was going to meet its demise soon if he kept wading into water just to get the perfect snapshot of a swan and her babies. Photographers never get enough credit for their nature shots, mind you.

 

He decided to go to his favorite place to take photos,  _ the park.  _ The park in itself was the perfect harmony between nature and man. What better way to capture the perfect photo than to have a stroll in the park? He had many options here, the children climbing up trees, the boy giving his girlfriend a flower he plucked from the grass, the shirtless men playing some form of ball game near the lake. He wasn’t sure what ball game it was but Aaron didn’t care.

 

He took a picture of the men for his portfolio… just in case.

 

Aaron didn’t know where else to look; his pictures were nothing but Mac Computer desktop worthy. A picture of a child watching a ladybug fly on to the leaf of a flower is too rookie. He  _ definitely  _ couldn’t send in the picture of the shirtless men. As much as he wanted to, if they found their picture online it wasn’t going to end well for him. He was  _ this _ close to giving up and he was absolutely frustrated with himself.

 

It wasn’t until he decided to sit down on a bench to eat his lunch did he find the perfect shot. It was already his second day here and he was literally so close to throwing in the towel. He was munching on his sandwich when a handsome fellow decided to sit on the bench next to him. No, he wasn’t directly next to him, per se. The man sat in the other bench that was about two feet away from him.

 

It was almost 3 and the sun was shining slightly to his right. Aaron almost dropped his sandwich in his haste to get his camera. That was it.  _ That  _ was the perfect shot. The halo of sunlight that surrounded the man’s head was breathtaking. The way it shined off his hair and moved slightly in the wind made him look like a god amongst men. If he happened to be taking a picture of a literal  _ Adonis,  _ then Aaron didn’t mind at all.

 

This man was beautiful and he  _ had  _ to take a picture.

 

He focused his camera slowly on the man’s figure. His back was hunched over slightly as his eyes were focused solely on the book in his left hand. His right hand seemed to be taking notes on what he was reading. He was too engrossed in what he was doing that Aaron wasn’t even afraid that he was going to get caught. His face was obscure enough for him to have some of his facial features clear on the screen but not focused enough to recognize him at first glance.

 

There. The perfect harmony between man and nature was finding a god amongst men. The perfect harmony was the light shining just right on his hair. The perfect harmony was the curve of his nose and the twist of his lips captured in the sunlight. The perfect harmony was the twitch of his fingers and the squint of his eyes and the furrow of his eyebrows shaded with gold. Aaron preserved that image now.

* * *

 

He didn’t believe it at first when Lafayette texted him a link that just had a winky face next to it as the only context. Then it was Laurens who texted him. Then it was Mulligan. He was very close to believing it when Peggy, the one that he remembered was a Photography student, was lamenting over the fact that she didn’t win the best snapshot of  _ harmony with man and nature. _

 

What the hell did that even  _ mean? _

 

He was finally able to check the link when he sat down in his apartment for lunch. If what he was hearing from his friends were true, a picture of him was currently circulating on the Internet. His friends were also pretty fucking vague as to what  _ kind  _ of picture. He doubted that it was a nude. He never sent nudes. He didn’t even have  _ someone  _ to send nudes to.

 

Okay, he was starting to get paranoid.

 

He typed in the link on his laptop and waited for the page to load entirely before he could make any assumptions. He didn’t have to wait long because a stream of coffee just found itself sprayed across his kitchen island. With the bitter liquid dripping down his chin, he continued to stare at the page. It just couldn’t be but the headline of  _ BEST SNAPSHOT OF THE MONTH  _ flashed repeatedly in his mind.

 

Alexander may just be seeing things but that was  _ definitely  _ a picture of him online. Who would  _ ever  _ take a picture of him? Of all the people to take a picture of, it was him that somehow inspired this photography student. Of all the other pictures, it was a candid photo of  _ him  _ that they deemed was the  _ perfect harmony between man and nature.  _ How can the sun shining off of his face be a pretty picture?

 

Although, the longer he stared at himself on the picture, the more he was starting to appreciate the beauty of it. He didn’t even  _ know  _ that he pursed his lips when he read a book. The furrow of his eyebrows, the curve of his nose, and the slight hunch of his back was almost silhouetted in the sunlight. The sun itself formed a halo around his head. It made him look like he was a god amongst men.

 

It made him look, dare he say it,  _ beautiful. _

 

With an absentminded nod to himself, he grabbed his phone from the table and started dialing Peggy’s number. If she was a Photography student, then the one who took this picture must be in her circle of friends. If not, it would be her circle of rivals. Either way, she would know the guy who took the picture. He didn’t know what he was going to say to them but he  _ knew  _ he just needed to talk to the guy.

 

He needed to know  _ why him? _

* * *

 

**_From: Pegster_ **

**_Hey, a friend of mine wants to talk to you??_ **

 

**_From: Bby Burr <3_ **

**_What?? Why??_ **

 

**_From: Pegster_ **

**_Idk. Something about the pic online, the one that you won a new camera for? btw Ihy for winning >:////_ **

 

**_From: Bby Burr <3_ **

**_Ily too, pegs <333 Anyway, where do they want to talk to me?_ **

 

**_From: Pegster_ **

**_He said the same place you took a picture of him. Same time too._ **

 

**_From: Bby Burr <3_ **

**_Aight. Thanks, Pegs! DW I’ll let u have a go at my new camera soon ;)))_ **

 

**_From: Pegster_ **

**_You’re the worst :P_ **

 

**_From: Bby Burr </3_ **

**_I know <3_ **

* * *

 

Aaron Burr was going to get beat up for winning a photography contest.

 

Normally, he was more careful with these sorts of things. His pictures were very neutral at best. Most of the things he took a picture of were meaningless but breathtaking nonetheless. However, he loved taking pictures. It helped him realize the beauty in life. Even with all the shit that people go through, at least Aaron had photography to help him remember why he was still alive.

 

But after today, he was a dead man.

 

It was more of a spur of the moment type of thing. He didn’t exactly  _ mean  _ to take pictures of strangers in the park. (The picture of the shirtless men will never see the light of day, thank you very much.) But the man on the bench just looked so damn  _ beautiful.  _ How could he not take a picture of something that made him practically forget he had a sandwich still in his mouth? He hoped to get at least a little bit of sympathy.

 

He waited patiently, albeit a bit nervously, on the same park bench at the exact same time he took the picture. 3pm and the park was quiet, void of any children running or shirtless men playing. Aaron fidgeted slightly in his seat when it soon became 10 past three.  _ Fuck.  _ If he was going to wait this long, he might as well entertain himself with something. So he took the new camera he won from the contest out of his bag and decided to test it out. 

 

He hasn’t taken a lot of pictures on it yet, mostly the steam from his cup of tea or the blurred city lights at midnight. The empty park was the perfect canvas for him to shoot. He walked around the park, occasionally stopping to take a picture of something, and eventually he finally found calm. He didn’t know when Peggy’s friend was going to be here, so he was going to take as many pictures as he wanted while waiting.

 

Just as he turned around to try and get a pretty focus of the sky, it was an astonishing mix of pastel colors right now, his camera focused on something else entirely. It was the face of the man he took a picture of weeks ago. Aaron gulped, his hands suddenly got a little sweaty too, and he lowered his camera slowly to see the guy in real life HD. “Um… hello?” He managed to stutter out but even  _ he  _ knew that his voice wasn’t exactly in a good condition to speak.

 

“Hi.” The man responded simply but he wasn’t looking at him, he was looking at the camera currently shaking slightly in Aaron’s trembling hands. Aaron quickly put the camera strap around his neck so that he wouldn’t accidentally drop his new camera. It was particularly good at capturing HD photos in motion. He would hate for it to break before it could reach its full potential. “I understand that your name is Aaron Burr? Photography student?”

 

“Yes?” He really shouldn’t be so scared of this guy but the more he stared at him, Aaron was beginning to feel like he  _ did  _ take a picture of a god. He was short, an entire  _ head  _ shorter than him, but his eyes held a fire that Aaron never saw before. He should apologize before fire and brimstone rain down on him. “Look man, I should have asked for your permission to take that photo. It’s just--” His sentence faltered trying to think of a good excuse.

 

Solution: He couldn’t.

 

“The sun was shining just  _ perfectly  _ on you and… I guess it’s just instinct?” He lowered his head a little to avoid eye contact with the man but he couldn’t stop the guilt eating him up inside. “You helped me win a contest, though.” He said trying to lighten the mood and, surprisingly, the man chuckled.

 

“Yeah, Peggy wouldn’t shut up about it. She said she had to crawl in the mud to take a picture of her baby cousin playing in the dirt. Although her picture was cute, I don’t think it was as good as yours. It’s… not because  _ I’m  _ in it, of course haha…” Suddenly the god became mortal and Aaron was able to breathe properly around him. The sun shone down on him again, which gave him another almost heavenly glow, and Aaron’s hands were twitching around his camera. 

 

He clicked the button before he could stop himself.

 

“Shit! I’m sorry, I did it again--” He moved to delete the picture but a warm hand wrapped around his own that stopped him from pressing the red button. His brain short circuited, his heart skipped a beat, and his hand subconsciously held tight on to the man’s hand as he realized that he was now a mere 12 inches away from him. They were practically breathing each other’s air and Aaron’s head was getting a little dizzy at how close they were. 

 

“Can I see?” The man asked timidly and Aaron nodded mutely before the freaking Adonis leaned closer to him  _ (breathe, Aaron, breathe)  _ and peaked at the new candid photo he took of him. “You know, you make me look  _ amazing _ in these photos.” His finger traced lightly over the display screen, hovering but not touching, and Aaron could practically hear the insecurity bleed through his words. 

 

“You make  _ yourself  _ look amazing in these photos. You’re beautiful.” The words spewed out before he could stop them from coming out and his muse grimaced a little in protest. “It’s true…” He managed to whisper to try and at least console the man of his unprecedented beauty. Sure, he wasn’t a model on the magazine or motherfucking Hugh Jackman, but he had his own sort of grace, his own form of unorthodox allure that captured Aaron before the camera ever did.

 

“Do you really believe that?” The man looked up at him this time, his eyes were shining still with undeserved insecurity, and Aaron nodded his head vigorously. He didn’t have the proper words to express to him how truly captivating he was, but he could definitely show him. “You photography students really are something else, huh?” A deep blush crept up his neck and Aaron wanted nothing else but to find out how the pretty shade of pink would look on his skin.

 

“At least give me your name. You know mine.” He whispered again, afraid that his voice would crack if it were even a decibel higher. 

 

“Alexander.”

 

A fitting name for a god made mortal, Aaron thought, and he smiled warmly at him. One of the perks of being a photography student was that he was able to recognize beauty in the simplest of things. The fallen flowers and trees, the children falling to their knees but getting back up again, the Adonis of a man who only saw himself as nothing of the sort, they were all absolutely beautiful. Aaron was determined to make him see that.

 

“Alexander,” He noticed that his hand was still hovering above the display screen, so he took it and squeezed it lightly between them. “Do you know what a muse is?” Alexander looked at him in confusion for a second before shaking his head no. “A muse is someone who inspires artistic revelations. It’s different with every artist, or in this case, every photographer.” Aaron could practically see the pieces start to fit together in Alexander’s brain until he was finally rewarded with a shy but ultimately radiant smile that outshone the sun.

 

“Are you asking me to be your muse?”

 

Aaron placed a well-deserved kiss on the back of Alexander’s hand. The pretty shade of pink really did look nice on his skin. “Do you object to it?” He asked, his voice once again only slightly above a whisper. Alexander looked at him for only a split second before he shook his head. Aaron smiled a little bit wider this time. “May I take more photos of you, my muse?” He said, his voice a little husky at the raised volume, and Aaron couldn’t get enough of the gorgeous picture of Alexander blushing.

 

“Yes, you may.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos are very much appreciated <3


End file.
